Friday, May 11, 2012

Week 2 of First Grade

On to Mesopotamia!


Yeah, I'll admit it.  I'm pretty ignorant about ancient history.  Guess I get to learn right along with the kids.  


Our study has moved on to the first writing.  We started Monday learning about Sumeria and their picture writings, called cuneiform.  (Yes, I have to look up how to spell it every time.)  Last week at the museum I had picked up a stamp set of Egyptian hieroglyphs (which, for some reason, I know how to spell.)  So Monday afternoon they spent some time writing out "sentences" using the stamps.  I'm thinking it ended up being more of a spelling project than a history project, but I guess that's the beauty of classical education- all subjects just compliment and boost the others.

As of this moment, no one has "stamped" anyone else.  Yet.

Wednesday we continued, and actually did the last month of, the project we started at the beginning of last year- our Year-Long Nature Walk.  This is a walk we started doing with lots of friends and so, to be honest, the journal doesn't always get done.  To put it in perspective, here's a picture from a previous walk (my camera isn't working this week):


Yes, that's Josiah in the middle of the back row making goofy faces.  Shocking, I know.


Let's just say that picking specimens to draw and notebooking about our trip when we get home- those things haven't been happening like they should.  But the social time and exercise are important, too, and I'm glad we have such great friends.  We'll probably start up our new journal one day next week, with a different route, and maybe a few fewer friends.


We did take a little walk on our own on Thursday to work on the beginning of our Animal Classification project.  We made two lists, one of the Living Things we found and the other of the Non-Living Things we found.


No indication of the slug-fest that was happening right before this picture...

I need to figure out how we're going to do the animal classification thing.  Maybe Rob will come home with a big chart hanging on the dining room wall.  He'll be so thrilled.

In honor of the loss of Maurice Sendak this week, we have been reading and re-reading some of his books.  Chicken Soup With Rice is the decided favorite, but we also enjoy Higglety Pigglety, Where the Wild Things Are and The Note on Rosie's Door.  We're a bit undecided about Outside Over There.  Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the educational books and forget to read some silly books just for fun.

We're almost done with Peter Pan, which has been the source for most of our Literature exercises this week.  We also had our first spelling test through the curriculum, All About Spelling.  Shockingly, Josiah declared that he LOVES spelling, spelling tests are his favorite things, and he wants to do more.  Go figure.

Next week- more on Egypt before we move onto Sumeria.

(I've decided to keep a separate post each week for the books we've read.  That way, anyone looking for TOG/SOTW coordination lists won't have to wade through the rest of our posts.)



1 comment:

  1. We love all the Little Bear books by Maurice Sendak. They are great for early readers.

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